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Cooking with Linux - A Gem of an Idea

What you have come up with, François? Yes, I am excited too, and I
am very happy to hear that you found it so easy to come up with today's
menu. I must confess, mon ami, I did have some concerns when
you told me you wanted to put together the menu for the Ruby
issue. You never told me that you were so interested in object-oriented
programming. I'm rather curious as to what made you choose Ruby.

François? Why do you look so confused? What do you mean, I'm the one who
is confused? Let me have a look at this menu of yours. Oh, I see. No,
François, I am not laughing at you. Well, maybe a little. None of these
programs have anything to do with Ruby. Yes, I can see that every one
of them features rubies, but Ruby doesn't have anything to do with
rubies. At least not directly, and as near as I can tell, none of these
programs are written in Ruby. No matter, François. Our guests will be
here any moment and we must be ready for their arrival. Don't worry
about the menu. Everything will be fine.

Welcome, everyone, to Chez Marcel, the home of fine wine and exquisite
Linux fare. Please, sit and make yourselves comfortable. François,
please head down to the cellar and bring back the case of 2000 Castell
de Falset Tinto from Penedes, Spain. It is located midway on the right
side of aisle four in the south wing. Vite, mon ami! Our guests
are no doubt parched.

While my faithful waiter is in the cellar, I should tell you that
the items on today's menu were all his choices. When I mentioned a
Ruby special issue, he jumped at the chance and, through a thoroughly
understandable misunderstanding, wound up putting together a collection
of games with rubies in them. On that note, I'd like to introduce the
first item on tonight's menu. Those of you who are running the KDE
desktop will probably find you already have a copy of
KSokoban,
written by Anders Widell. The word sokoban is a Japanese word meaning
“warehouse keeper”. KSokoban can be seriously
challenging, but the premise
of the game is simple. Your warehouse keeper needs to push these large,
red, ruby-like gems into proper storage locations in the warehouse. The
storage locations are indicated by glassy, green circles. Every gem must
be moved into storage (Figure 1).

Figure 1. KSokoban is a challenging and fascinating puzzle. Look for it as part of your KDE collection of games.

Sounds easy—and it is. At first. With each successive level,
KSokoban
becomes increasingly difficult. The catch is that you can push only one
gem at a time. Okay, there's more than just one catch. You also can't
pull the gems, and you can't step over them. Push them up against a wall
with no way to get behind them and you are stuck.

Ah, wonderful, François! You have returned with the wine. Please, pour
for our guests. Enjoy the wine, mes amis. This red is actually a
blend of several varietals—rich and complex.

Complexity in KSokoban comes with successive levels. There also
are collections of levels, and even those collections vary in terms of
complexity. If you find yourself overwhelmed, or if you would like a
kinder, gentler version of KSokoban that your younger kids can enjoy,
click Game on the menu bar and select Microban (easy)
from the level collection. It's a great way to build up your confidence
before submitting yourself to the Sasquatch levels.

Sebastien Delestaing's Gweled is a Linux port/remake of a game
called Diamond Mine, also known as
Bejeweled. This gem of a game
features an array of precious stones from diamonds to emeralds to
rubies and more (Figure 2). The idea is to line three identical stones
in a row (diagonally does not work). Your only method for accomplishing
this feat is to click on a stone and then another adjacent stone. This
causes the stones to flip their position. This works only if the flip
generates a three-in-a-row combination. Once three stones line up,
those above fall and the grid is replenished. The object is to play
until there are no further moves and, of course, to generate the highest
possible score in that time frame.

Figure 2. Gweled is attractive, fun to play and surprisingly addictive.

Under the Preferences menu, you can select the size of the game grid. Mind
you, this is a physical size. The number of jewels on the grid remains
the same. You also can select a somewhat more difficult—and just
a tad more nerve-wracking—timed version of the game where you race
against the clock for points. Gweled is easy, fun to play and makes
for a highly successful time waster.

As you all enjoy the wine François is busy refilling, I note a happy and
appreciative look on your faces, even from those of you who are on to your
second or third glass. This makes the following item on tonight's menu
somewhat ironic, a great arcade game called Angry, Drunken,
Dwarves.

Why these dwarves are drunk and angry evades even the developer of the
game. All Joe Wreschnig, the author of
Angry, Drunken, Dwarves, can tell
us is that they have decided to take this alcohol-fueled aggression out
on their fellow dwarves by dropping gems on their heads. Rubies, emeralds,
diamonds—they are all fair game in this arcade diversion (Figure 3).

Figure 3. The computer's drunken dwarf doesn't look so tough.

During the course of the game, colored gems drop slowly from above
(gravity must not be as strong deep underground). As they drop, you use
the cursor keys—or the keyboard in a multiplayer game—to rotate
and position the gems. This is more than just a
Tetris clone. Angry,
Drunken, Dwarves is also a strategy game. Assemble the falling gems
in a rectangular combination, and the gems will fuse into larger gems,
or crystals. Circular, star-like gems are called break gems
when they hit a gem (or crystal) of the same color. Crystals, as you
might expect, are worth more than gems when smashed by a break gem.

Now, I did say that this was a multiplayer game, which means playing
against another flesh-and-blood opponent or a computer-generated one. At
the beginning of the game, each player chooses a dwarf. To help you
choose
a player, Angry, Drunken, Dwarves presents you with pictures,
names and bios of the dwarf contestants (Figure 4). Each dwarf also
has an attack pattern, which you can use to your advantage if you
are smart. During game play, your opponent's rules are the same, but
whenever you break gems, your opponent drops counter gems on you, which
means you have to work twice as hard and twice as fast in order to clear
them. As turnabout is indeed fair play, your opponents get the same
treatment when they break gems.

Figure 8. Each angry, drunken, dwarf comes with his own picture, attack pattern and bio.

There's quite a bit more to the game, but I'm going to let you discover
that on your own. Before we move on, however, I want to point out a
not-so-apparent aspect to the game that starts to show itself after you have played
a few times. On the game selection screen, you will see a menu option
labeled View Unlocks, which opens up some otherwise unseen features of
the game.

Ah, mes amis, it is getting late, the stars are out and shining
like jewels—sorry, I couldn't resist—and puns are a diamond a
dozen. Sadly, we must start thinking about closing up...soon. François
will happily refill your crystal glasses with the ruby-red Castell de
Falset as you try your hands at some of tonight's sparkling games. On
that note, please raise your glasses, mes amis, and let us all
drink to one another's health. A votre santé Bon
appéit!

Marcel Gagné is an award-winning writer living in Mississauga, Ontario.
He is the author of the all new Moving to Ubuntu
Linux, his fifth book
from Addison-Wesley. He also makes regular television appearances as Call
for Help's Linux guy. Marcel is also a pilot, a past Top-40 disc jockey,
writes science fiction and fantasy, and folds a mean Origami T-Rex.
He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]. You
can discover
lots of other things (including great Wine links) from his Web site at
www.marcelgagne.com.